It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill (+ guest post)

To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill

Welcome back to our annual blog series spotlighting (over 60 again this year) new and recently-released Christmas reads!

Christmas is only 21 days away, according to Google, but of course it’s never too early for Christmas stories, and ’tis the season when I really start craving them (even more than I do the rest of the year lol), so now is the perfect time to jump right into these posts!

Continuing through just after Christmas, I’m going to spotlight several Christmasy releases from 2022. Most days will have more than one post, just FYI. So… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes and start your bookish Christmas list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

TO SWEET BEGINNINGS IN SYCAMORE HILL by Stacey Weeks
SERIES: Sycamore Hill #0.5
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
PUBLISHER: Grace and Love Publishing
RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2022
PAGES: 132

When a disgraced woman’s return entangles the lives of five couples, twenty-four hours changes everything forever.

A whistleblower speaks up, and she tips the first domino of a twenty-four-hour chain reaction on the eve of Sycamore Hill’s most important holiday event. A baker gets a career-making opportunity, a reporter chases the truth, a woman faces her greatest fear, and a lost child returns as the dominos continue to fall. The residents of Sycamore Hill approach a new year, and five couples celebrate sweet beginnings filled with endless possibilities in this short story sequence introducing a new five-book series.

If you like small-town, faith-filled, contemporary romances that can make you laugh and cry, grab your copy of To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill.

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Stacey Weeks is celebrating this season of sweet beginnings by putting To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill on sale for .99 for the month of December.

Life holds many sweet beginnings, but none quite as precious as when I first held my children. Our journey toward parenthood was not the typical path. Our stick never turned blue. We never saw two lines appear. We never bought maternity clothes or made a birth plan. Things we assumed would be ours were not. Instead, life redirected us, and we found ourselves at the beginning of an unexpected journey.

Mary and Joseph’s Unexpected Beginning.

Mine is not the only life that has taken a surprising turn. The Bible is full of people like me who had to shift gears and re-evaluate when their circumstances unfolded in unexpected ways. Jesus’s earthly mother had been anticipating her life with Joseph until an angel appeared. Then, confusion and fear replaced Mary’s dreams.

While betrothed to Mary, Joseph was likely busy building a room onto his father’s house, eagerly anticipating the day he could bring his love home. Now, he planned to leave Mary and quietly end their engagement. What appeared to be a great betrayal devastated his dreams for their future. Mary was pregnant while engaged to him.

But however impossible it must have seemed, God was with Mary and Joseph. Joseph listened to the Lord and wed Mary. She gave birth to Jesus and named Him Emmanuel, which means God with us. This wasn’t what they expected, but God’s perfect plan was unfolding in their lives. They began life together, understanding their story was about so much more than them.

The Story Begins and Ends with God

My husband and I thought the beginning of our family’s story was when we travelled to China and met our daughter and later when we met our sons in a local government building. We thought this was our once upon a time that led to happily ever after. But the story is so much bigger than us.

It’s tempting to believe that God begins penning chapter one, a sweet beginning in a new book in the series of our lives, on the day we repent of our sins and turn to him. But maybe God does not begin chapter one of a new book that casts us as the main character, but instead, perhaps he adds a new chapter to an old book, an ancient book that God began writing long before we ever lived a single day that casts Him as the main character.

This story began before there was time. This is God’s story; somewhere along the line, He wove a thread of humanity into it. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit wrote us into His story. We have roles—and they are roles that matter—but it’s not about us. It doesn’t start with us. It will not end with us. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Revelation 22:13, “I (Jesus) am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” The story starts and ends with God.

A Christmas Story

So, this Christmas, as you remember the narrative of Jesus’s birth and consider the story God has written for your life, remember this isn’t a cliff-hanger, although it might begin with some nail-biting scenes. It’s not a tragedy, although it might contain tragic moments. We are not left wondering how this sweet beginning will end because we have the book and can turn to the last page. 

We can read of the certain victory secured by God for those who believe in Jesus. Faith in Christ is the sweetest beginning, and it ends in certain triumph, with a victory won on our behalf and sealed by the Holy Spirit. 

My children’s story and my story connected at their adoption, but it started long before that and has, we praise the Lord, included them turning to Jesus by faith. Mary and Joseph’s story began much differently than they expected, but because of Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection, they, like us, can be adopted into the family of God. 

However rough the beginning of your story reads, however unexpected and challenging the journey proves to be, your story can also end with a happily ever after that lasts for all eternity.

Stacey Weeks is offering an ebook copy of To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill to one of my readers! (Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read To Sweet Beginnings in Sycamore Hill by Stacey Weeks?